EarthAction

You're Invited to a Free World Forum on Desertification & Citizen Action

Invitation to Participate in a Free Virtual World Community Forum on 

Desertification & Citizen Action: Saving the Life-Giving Soils of the World 

Tuesday, 28 February—Tuesday, 6 March 2012 

First Session: Tuesday, 28 February 

8am (New York, Quito, Toronto) 
1pm (Bamako, Dakar, London) 
4pm (Doha, Nairobi, Minsk) 
9pm (Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Perth) 

****Pre-registration Needed**** 


You are invited to participate in a Virtual World Community Forum on Desertification and Citizen Action—Saving the Life-Giving Soils of the World that will take place Tuesday, February 28 through Tuesday, March 6, 2012. The Forum is being co-sponsored by the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), EarthAction, and The Global Citizens Initiative (TGCI). The Forum is being made available at no cost to participants. 

Desertification is the loss of topsoil and soil fertility in the drylands of the world. These regions cover 41% of the Earth’s land surface, are inhabited by over 2 billion people, and provide 30% of the world’s cultivated plants. The delicate soils in these drylands are becoming so degraded they can no longer support life, causing malnutrition, poverty, economic failure, forced migration, conflict and extinction of species. 

This free Virtual World Community Forum is intended to raise awareness about the ways in which desertification is affecting our quality of life, and to enable people and organizations from around the world to share experiences and lessons learned in fighting and reversing desertification. The Forum is intended to lead to the production of a Primer on Desertification and Citizen Action which will be widely distributed to governments, NGOs, business organizations, and religious groups engaged in efforts to halt and reverse the spread of desertification. 
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The World Community Forum Agenda: 

Day One—Tuesday, 28 February 8:00 am New York time (see times for other places above.) The Forum will start with a one-hour online webinar beginning with a 15-minute kick-off interview with Luc Gnacadja, the Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, followed by a 20-minute webinar presentation by Yukie Hori of the UNCCD secretariat with questions and answers. Following the webinar, participants will have an opportunity to post and exchange experiences and lessons learned about desertification in a global online forum that will continue for seven days. 

Days Two to Six—Wednesday, 29 February to Monday, 5 March: Each day an expert on desertification will initiate and guide an online examination of a specific topic related to desertification. These will include: the impact of desertification on water and food security, gender, children, migration, etc., and effective citizen action to combat desertification. For each topic, participants will have an opportunity to post and exchange experiences and lessons learned regarding that topic in a global online forum that will continue through Day Six of the Forum. 

Day Seven—Tuesday, 6 March, 8:00 am New York time: On the final day of the Forum, a panel composed of the experts from the previous days’ topics will engage in a 60-minute webinar to summarize the important ideas, experiences, and lessons learned from the discussions during the week. Questions and answers will follow. Participants will have an opportunity to post their concluding observations and remarks throughout the day. 
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To participate in this free forum, please use the following steps: 

1) log-on to The Global Citizens' Initiative (TGCI) website: theglobalcitizensinitiative.org; this will take you to the TGCI Landing Page 

2) click-on Desertification Forum Signup; this will take you to a short registration form 

3) complete the registration form and click Submit­; this will take you back to the TGCI Home Page 

4) click-on World Community Forum 

5) click-on Current Forum 

Once you are registered for the Forum you will be able to post your own messages and comments that relate to the different topics that will be covered. You also will have access to related webinars, video presentations, and documents that will be provided to all participants. 
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We sincerely hope you will participate in the Forum on Desertification & Citizen Action—Saving the Life-Giving Soils of the World. You have much to contribute and learn from this event. 

If you have any questions please contact editor@gcitizen.org 


Ron Israel, Global Citizens Initiative 
Lois Barber, EarthAction 
Yukie Hori, UNCCD secretariat

Click here to see and share our email invitation.

Where have all the honey bees gone?

What is it:

Colony Collapse Disorder is the name given to a phenomenon first noticed by large-scale bee keepers in 2006 and 2007 that is estimated to have impacted one third of all honey bee colonies in the United States. 

Hives that suffer from CCD incur a loss of the majority of their adult worker-bee population and are characterized by a hive empty of bees yet full of honey, bee young and even the queen bee.The bees from these colonies appear healthy until, one day, bee keepers find a hive with no adult worker bees. No dead bees are found near the hive nor are there any signs as to where the bees disappear to, all that is known is that they leave behind what looks to be an otherwise healthy hive.

What Causes it?

 The causes of Colony Collapse disorder are debated, with no entirely conclusive study yet to be conducted. Some proposed causes include:

• poisoning from pollinating pesticide treated crops
• poor nutrition from altered foraging patterns/lack of diversified food sources
• increased presence of the honey bee pest varroa mites
• new viruses targeting bee immune systems

Most scientists and bee keepers argue that CCD may be the result of increased stress due to many of the above listed factors. However, all agree that threats to the honey bee population are threats to our global food system as we know it.

Why is it important:
Bees aren’t just busy pollinating flowers, they are the unsung heroes in food systems across the globe, pollinating many crops for human consumption. In the United States our industrial food system is supported by a network of bee keepers who truck bees up and down highways pollinating everything from Maine blueberries to Florida oranges and California almonds. Without them, food supplies world wide are in danger of collapsing.
And CCD isn’t just happening to bees in the United States, honey bees in The UK have been reportedly suffering from CCD and in 2011 the United Nations issued a statement declaring CCD a global concern reaching from US beekeepers to Chinese beekeepers.

What can we do:

• Urge secretary Tom Vilsack of the US Department of Agriculture to continue to fund research to combat CCD using this online messaging system from the National Resources Defense Council. (Tip- customize the message, tell Tom Vilsack why this issue is important to you, for maximum impact!)
• Read these tips from the NRDC on how to make a bee-friendly garden and which pesticides are commonly known to impact bee health. Inform other gardeners and farmers in your community of the pesticides on the list!
• Learn to keep bees (even in the city) to add to a growing number of small scale bee keepers invested in healthy honey bees across the globe!
• Read about what the EPA is doing to protect honey bees in the United States.

Written by EarthAction Intern Walker Dunn
Sources and Further Information:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in720

Image Source through Creative Commons Liscensing

Middle Photo by: Dan Solely (c) turtlephoto.org 

Please sign on to protect a forest and Indigenous rights in Cambodia

Mao Chanthoeun and hundreds of other Kuy villagers call themselves Cambodia's "avatars." Like the Na'vi people in the "Avatar" film, the Kuy are defending their forest against mining and other destructive practices. Photo by Samrang Pring, Reuters.

In Cambodia, some 200,000 mostly Indigenous Kuy villagers are desperately trying to preventthe destruction of Prey Lang ("Our Forest"), the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochina peninsula. Generations of Kuy people have protected the forest with its sacred areas, places for gathering fruits, medicinal plants, housing materials, and resin. Some 300 villages and family rice fields are scattered through a large buffer zone of secondary forest that surrounds Prey Lang. Their use of forest resources is sustainable, but now their livelihoods and the life of the forest are under attack.

The government has issued a dizzying patchwork of land concessions to road builders, mining companies, and agro-industries. Bulldozers are slicing huge swaths through the forest, clear-cutting enormous blocks of land for rubber and other plantations. Studies show that Indigenous forest-dwelling communities do the best job of protecting forests. Our best bet for saving Prey Lang is to support the Kuy people's rights and their management of the forest they know best. 

Join us:  

Global Response, the action program of Cultural Survival, and EarthAction, a global network of over 2,000 organizations, are working together in support of the Prey Lang Community Network to protect and save their forest. On our websites below you can find links to communicate with Cambodian officials to urge them to cancel existing land concessions and create a sustainable management program with the permanent participation of the Prey Lang peoples. We ask your organization to please share this information widely, with other organizations, with your members, and in your newsletters.

How You Can Help:  

Below is a sign-on letter for organizations, available in PDF here.  Please add your organization, and help the Kuy people protect the unique and threatened Prey Lang forest. To sign on, please email Danielle@cs.org by January 31  and include the name of the signee, organization, and country you are based in.   

For more information and online action pages, please see visit: 

Cultural Survival, EarthAction, and Prey Lang Community Network. 

Sincere thanks and good wishes to you in your important work for our planet and all its peoples. 

Lois Barber, Director 

EarthAction Network

PO Box 63

Amherst, MA 01004

Tel +413 549 8118

 

Paula Palmer, Director               

Global Response Program                   

Cultural Survival, Inc.                      

PO Box 7490                              

Boulder CO 80306 USA                   

Tel +303/444-0306

 _____________________________________________________________  

Dear Ambassador Kosal Sea, Prime Minister Samech Hun Sen,   

 

As international human rights and environmental organizations, we are deeply concerned that Cambodia has lost almost all of its primary forests.  According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, primary forests covered 70 percent of Cambodia's land mass just 40 years ago. Tragically, these magnificent forests have shrunk to only 3.1 percent of the nation's territory today. One of the remaining forests, Prey Lang, is in danger of being lost as more and more concessions are granted to agro-industries and mining companies.

 

Prey Lang's rich store of biological diversity, unique on the Indochina peninsula, is reason enough to protect it. But there are other reasons, as well.  Over 200,000 people depend on the forest as a source of fruits, nuts, medicinal plants, housing materials, clean drinking water, fish, and resin. Prey Lang provides ecological services that benefit millions of people, serving as a vital source of water for Cambodia's rice-growing region and for the Mekong Delta. 

The people who live in villages surrounding Prey Lang have banded together to save the forest.  Many of these people are Indigenous Kuy, whose rights are specified in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  As an endorser of the Declaration, Cambodia acknowledges Indigenous Peoples' right to free, prior, and informed consent for projects that affect their lands and livelihoods, yet the Kuy have not been consulted concerning land concessions in and surrounding Prey Lang. Indeed, they have clearly demonstrated their opposition to the land concessions through public protests and petitions.

As supporters of environmental protection and Indigenous Peoples' rights, the following organizations join the Prey Lang Network in urging you to cancel existing land concessions and other development projects in the greater Prey Lang area, ban new concessions, and create a sustainable management program with the permanent participation of the Prey Lang Network.

Thank you for considering the views of the international community, recognizing our common commitment to environmental protection and human rights.

 

Respectfully, 

(list of organizations)

_____________________________________________________________

Does the Kuy people's situation sound familiar?

If your organization represents or partners with Indigenous communities that are struggling to prevent environmental destruction and defend their rights, learn how to request a Global Response Campaign here. Click here to receive Global Response action alerts by email.

If you'd like more information about becoming a Partner Organization in the EarthAction Network and receiving action alerts on global environment, development, peace and human rights issues, click here to JOIN EarthAction. 

Cultural Survival's Global Response Program organizes effective international letter-writing campaigns to protect the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples.  See action alerts for adults and youth at www.cs.org

Click here to view and share EarthAction's email action alert.